大象传媒

Vienna

This was going to be a blog all about Croatia coach Slaven Bilic, a man who oozes passion. We've seen him on the touchline, gesticulating, remonstrating and bellowing instructions to his players. He's an inspirational figure - 大象传媒 Sport pundit Gavin Peacock has compared him to Kevin Keegan - and the kind of manager I like. Much as I admire the achievements of, say, Sven-Goran Eriksson, give me Bilic any day of the week.

But then Raymond Domenech got in on the act, proposing to his girlfriend live on telly just moments after his side's 2-0 defeat to Italy, a loss which knocked the French out of Euro 2008.

"It was just a thought. Everyone was so sad and I thought to myself, 'Life has its beautiful moments'," he said. "You have to tell people you love them. In such difficult moments, you have to go to what's important. I wanted to show some emotion."

How can you top that?

Anyway, I didn't want to abandon my euology to Bilic entirely - and I thought they best to capture his passion for the game was to post a few photos of him "in action".

He loves his players:

He loves his backroom team:

He loves remonstrating with officials

He loves winning:

And he loves the odd cigarette:

Is it any surprise Croatia are doing so well when they have a leader like him?